My name is Yakov Lurie (people usually just call me Yasha) and I am about to work here as a Russian language tutor since the coming fall. Though I guess there’s not too much to say until we meet (which I feel really inspired about), I may tell you that my hard drive is already getting filled with some unexpected Soviet and contemporary Russian films and music (film studies was my major at Smolny College in St.-Petersburg that I just graduated from), while my grandmother fills me with more and more various advices on how to make a proper Borscht. Please feel free to write me with whatever comes to your head, whether you have some questions, want me to bring you an old Dostoevsky book from the nearest flea market (which is easy) or find a specific piece of Russian or Soviet music/film/literature that is for some reason harder to get in Iowa.